<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bakana:
To have better sensors than a White Star may just be a matter of having more Room on the hull to put them.
And more power to run them.
The Excalibur is, after all, a Much Larger ship. It could just as easily been a case of many more sensors being better able to get enough info to create a picture that would just be too fuzzy to resolve for a White Star with a smaller array of sensors feeding data to the computers.
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That's probably it. I get the feeling that the sensor technology on the Whitestars and on the Excalibur are essentially the same tech level, but that the Excalibur just has a wider cross-section (due to the tri-wing design) and more power. Since both the Whitestar and Excalibur use a Minbari powertrain, more room for bigger engines means more power.
Now you have me wondering about arrays of Whitestars (like arrays of radiotelescope dishes on Earth), the sensor ability of a Vorlon Transport, and how much of the Excalibur actually uses Vorlon tech. I suspect it's only main gun. The Excalibur's sensors are probably just the furthest development of Minbari and Earthforce tech, supplied with more power. Recall if you will that the Whitestar uses some Vorlon tech that the Excalibur does not like the Vorlon Defence System (bio-armor). Perhaps Drake didn't get the other Vorlon Tech installed and/or working, on purpose)?
Regarding the sensors of Galen's ship:
Well, the Technomages do
<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>construct sensors of their own (Circe makes 'em, and so has Galen). They have probes that are as small as a speck of dust, probes that size that can reposition themselves for a better vantage point, and FTL relays to transmit the probe's data back to the user over distances greater than from B5 to the rim.</font></td></tr></table>
I imagine that's how Galen keeps tabs on where the Excalibur is, so he knows where to find it. The point is that
<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>
not all of the mages' abilities is shadowtech (which they cannot construct)</font></td></tr></table>
but rather is stuff that they make themselves.
<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>The mages have shadowtech </font></td></tr></table>
PLUS they are damn good at technology themselves.
<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>Also the mage ships have beam weapons.</font></td></tr></table>
I hope that one day, we get to see them used.
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KoshN
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Vorlon Empire
"To Live and Die in Starlight"
pilot movie for the new series
"Babylon 5 - The Legend of the Rangers"
January 2, 2002 on The Sci-Fi Channel.
http://www.scifi.com/b5rangers/